The 2025 Uğur Mumcu Special Award, presented annually by the Antalya Bar Association since 2007, has been awarded to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eylem Ümit Atılgan, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University Of Kyrenia.
At the award ceremony held on 24 January 2026, a message from Güldan Mumcu, President of the Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism Foundation, was read aloud. The award was then presented to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Atılgan by the President of the Antalya Bar Association.
“I accept this award on behalf of true human rights defenders”
In her speech at the ceremony, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Atılgan referred to her observations, struggle, and academic work in the field of women’s and children’s rights. Emphasizing the personal significance of the award, she underlined that the true practitioners of the legal profession are lawyers working on the ground. In her remarks, Atılgan stated:
“When Uğur Mumcu was assassinated, I was a high school student preparing for the university entrance exams. I followed his column in Cumhuriyet newspaper and had watched Sakıncalı Piyade at the theatre. It was perhaps the first political assassination I had witnessed, and it affected me deeply. After his loss, I decided to study law and applied only to Ankara University Faculty of Law.
Being deemed worthy of the Uğur Mumcu Special Award is, for me, an indication that I continue to walk in his footsteps. That the distinguished human rights defenders of the Antalya Bar Association have considered an academic worthy of this award further enhances its value. Those who truly practice our profession are the ones who empathize with citizens seeking justice and strive to make what ought to be happen in courthouse corridors. I accept this award on behalf of the true human rights defenders.”
Who is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eylem Ümit Atılgan?
Eylem Ümit Atılgan graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law in 1997. Between 2000 and 2017, she served at the Department of Philosophy and Sociology of Law at Ankara University.
She completed her master’s degree with a thesis titled “Aristotle’s Theory of the State and Its Contribution to Modern Theories”, and her PhD with a dissertation titled “Social Environment and Criminal Responsibility in Children Involved in Crime in Urban Settings.”
In 2015, she was awarded the title of associate professor with her study titled “A Socio-Legal Study on Internal Legal Culture in Turkey: Codes of Patriarchal Domination in Decisions on Unjust Provocation.”
Atılgan has published numerous academic studies and books in the fields of juvenile delinquency, judicial mentality, gender and law. She serves as a faculty member at Near East University and University Of Kyrenia, where she teaches courses including Sociology of Law, Philosophy of Law, Sociology of the Judiciary, Empirical Studies in Law, and Gender Equality and Law.
Atılgan has conducted field research with women working as hostesses in nightclubs in Cyprus, feminist rights advocates in Italy, and feminist lawyers in Turkey. She is married and the mother of one child.
